The mood in Adrien Broner’s dressing room is playful, and so are his kids.
They run about excitedly as their father gets himself together after his unanimous decision victory over John Molina Jr. on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
It’s a family affair all around, with Broner’s mother, father and brothers, among others, kicking back after his win.
Broner seems as relaxed outside the ring as did in it.
Throughout the fight, Molina attempted to land fiercely thrown right hands, but Broner says he anticipated as much.
“That’s John Molina,” Broner notes as he finishes dressing himself in white pants, a floral shirt, sparkly blue high tops and his omnipresent shades. “He tried to hit me with the shot that he hits everybody with. I was well-prepared.”
And so while Molina’s aim was to provoke a dogfight, Broner relied on his hand and foot speed advantage to keep himself out of harm’s way, peppering Molina with sharp, strategically thrown punches.
Afterwards, he was calm and collected.
“I’m gonna just have fun with my kids and watch them smile,” he said of his plans for the night with a smile of his own.
In Molina’s dressing room, the prevailing sentiment was one of disappointment more than defeat.
Molina acknowledged that he lost the fight, but was frustrated with Broner’s defensive-minded tactics and shiftiness in the ring.
“He was just moving a lot,” said Molina, sporting a ball cap and a clean, undamaged face, barely looking like he had even been in a fight. “Every time I went forward, he was gone. He never sat there and exchanged with me. He was elusive. He did what he had to do.”
As Molina spoke, the epic Robert Guerrero-Keith Thurman clash was playing on TV.
“Oooh!” Molina exclaimed as Guerrero got knocked down in the ninth round.
Some in the room wondered if Guerrero would get up.
Not Molina.
“He’ll weather it,” he said with confidence.
Guerrero did.
Now it’s Molina’s turn.
